Greetings! Today we're taking the time to welcome Purple Horn Press author and co-founder Ashavan Doyon to the blog to talk about the rerelease of Loving Aidan.

I'm excited to be here!

This series is still a favorite of mine. In part because Loving Aidan was my first novel. But also because there's a lot of personal bits spread throughout the series. From the focus on LGBT life on campus, to campus leadership, to the struggle of feeling alone on campus. These were all familiar things. And they made writing Loving Aidan both easier and harder.

Easier, yes easier, because it was something I knew. I know what the reaction of a campus to seeing someone in a flashy outfit like Aidan wears will be. I know what it looks like. I know when it will get ignored and when it will get him chased at night with people ready to beat his head in. And yes, while I was not the one wearing the outfit, I remember what it was like to have to run and to feel that fear. So in that sense writing Aidan was easy, because I could so easily put myself into the mindset of this flamboyant and very out young man and know how he'd respond. And so I knew what Aidan would do, both when he was alone and desperately in love with people he couldn't have and when he was cornered.

Harder, because damn. This shit is still hard. And that makes it painful to write about.

I love Aidan. Flamboyant. Tiny. Strong. We don't see Aidan's strength grow, because he comes into the story with it, but we see how it's grown and how he's been hurt in his conversations with Sammy and with Steven. And if you read carefully, the scars are plenty visible. Ultimately they shape the choice he makes.

Steven is easy to see as a sweet and romantic character. I don't want to take away from that, because he is—once he starts to find himself, to trust himself and to really fall for Aidan, we get to see a Steven that I think a lot of readers probably fall in love with. But Steven has a history. He hasn't always been supportive of Aidan and that teasing? It didn't start as flirting. On the other hand, the openness with which Steven offers Aidan his feelings is breathtaking. Want to know a secret? It was a surprise for me too.

I think Sammy gets a bad rep. He's a very dominant possessive guy. If you look at Aidan and how he grew up and how they meet, Aidan's attraction will make sense. He's also very driven. Sammy comes from poor-as-shit country. School is his chance to escape and he plans to escape. It's easy to miss in the focus on him being possessive that he's also a straight 'A' student with a 4.0, studying to be a doctor while managing college athletics and still reading to sick kids in the hospital on weekends.

The Passion Stroll (there's a free scene at this one—the first meeting of Aidan and Sammy)Love Byte's LGBT Romance Reviews (giveaway! There's still a few hours left, I'll be picking a winner tomorrow, Monday 3/27/17! The winner gets to pick between a free ebook copy of Loving Aidan or American Pride)